In this series of posts, I’ll be providing tips that show how to do something in both AutoCAD and BricsCAD, hence A & B.
The Series
The idea behind this series is to provide useful information for several sorts of reader:
- AutoCAD users.
- BricsCAD users.
- People in the process of transitioning from AutoCAD to BricsCAD and who need to know what to do differently (if anything).
- People considering transitioning from AutoCAD to BricsCAD and who want to know about the differences and similarities.
What’s This Post About?
In my first post in this series about starting your CAD application in a ‘clean slate’ state, I had this to say:
While we’re still on AutoCAD, I should mention that there’s a command-line switch (i.e. it can be used in your startup shortcut) called /nologo, which prevents AutoCAD showing its logo on startup. I haven’t discerned any performance benefit in doing so, so I don’t bother.
A couple of comments from James and R.K. prompted me to revisit this statement. It also prompted me to do some benchmark work I’ve been planning for quite a while.
How long does AutoCAD take to start up? Can we make it start quicker by not displaying the logo? How about BricsCAD? How do the times of recent AutoCAD and BricsCAD releases compare? AutoCAD 2015 was the earliest Autodesk product tested here, along with the two most recent BricsCAD versions. Earlier products might show different results, but the line has to be drawn somewhere.
Benchmark Methodology
In this case, because I need to start measuring time before AutoCAD starts, I do it externally. I use a batch file to record the time, start the application, tell it to draw a line (ensuring it has all of its stuff loaded and doesn’t cheat by quitting early), then close the application. The batch file then reports the total time taken. This isn’t strictly just measuring the startup time, but it’s pretty close.
Each application was set up using the most basic profile, workspace and template. All palettes were turned off except the Properties palette which was docked on the left. The application was maximized to the right hand screen of a two-monitor 1920 x 1200 setup.
Before starting the the benchmark for a given application, that application would be started and closed, so it was the most recent product run and subsequent startups would not have to spend time reassociating file extensions. The system would be restarted and allowed to settle until CPU activity was 0% as shown by Task Manager. The batch file would then run, and first and subsequent times would be recorded separately. The test would be repeated and the fastest (not average) time recorded. Any suspicious looking results would be re-tested.
Each application was benchmarked both with and without the command-line switch to tell it not to display the logo during startup. For AutoCAD this is /nologo and for BricsCAD it’s /L.
Machine Specs
The test was performed on a pretty fast, modern machine (at the time of writing!):
- CPU: i7-8700K @ 3.7 GHz (liquid cooled)
- RAM: 32 GB DDR4 @3200 MHz
- OS Drive: Samsung 960 Pro 512 GB SSD
- Data Drive: WD Red Pro 6 TB 128 MB Cache (doubled using RAID 1)
- Graphics: GeForce GTX1070 8 GB Cache
- OS: Windows 10 Pro x64
Unless you’re running a similarly quick PC, it’s likely that you will experience noticeably bigger time differences than those shown in the results below.
Results
Times are shown in seconds. Lower is better. First startup is always slower than subsequent startups, so the times are listed separately.
| Application | First | First (no logo) | Subsequent | Subsequent (no logo) |
| AutoCAD 2015 | 8.49 | 8.14 | 5.42 | 5.36 |
| AutoCAD 2016 | 9.83 | 9.84 | 6.68 | 5.69 |
| AutoCAD 2017 | 10.65 | 10.89 | 7.55 | 7.08 |
| AutoCAD 2018 | 11.15 | 11.14 | 7.23 | 7.21 |
| AutoCAD 2019 | 12.50 | 11.98 | 7.54 | 7.69 |
| BricsCAD V17 | 2.16 | 2.12 | 1.11 | 1.12 |
| BricsCAD V18 | 3.05 | 3.06 | 1.93 | 1.97 |
Summary
Start AutoCAD Without a Logo?
There’s not much in it, except for subsequent starts of AutoCAD 2016, which gain about a second. Other gains are in the tenths. You’re therefore unlikely to notice any difference as a result of using the /nologo switch.
It’s not going to hurt to do this if you’re setting up your own shortcuts anyway, but otherwise it’s hardly worth the effort.
Start BricsCAD Without a Logo?
Don’t bother. You’re not going to notice any difference as a result of using the /L switch.
Recent AutoCAD Takes Longer
The more recent your AutoCAD, the longer it’s going to take to start up. This is hardly surprising, given the bloat that AutoCAD increasingly suffers with each new release, despite offering very little in the way of new functionality.
AutoCAD Takes Longer Than BricsCAD
AutoCAD takes a lot longer to start up than BricsCAD. The current release of AutoCAD takes about 4 times longer than the current release of BricsCAD. BricsCAD V18 may take longer to start than V17, but it’s still so much faster than AutoCAD you’ll probably be too busy grinning to notice.
Just did some tests on my end again, on 2018 (not 2018.1), and am seeing autocad start in 17 seconds, with or without /nologo. So it seems much less sensitive than 2015, and I only care about a second or more. Tried with civil3d 2018, and am seeing 24 secs with /nologo, and 26 without it. So a couple seconds there, just using stopwatch though. These times are on a current machine, but only gaseous nitrogen/oxygen blend at room temperature used for cooling 🙂 Here is a thought though, our machines all have civil3d as we install IDSP. We uninstall the object enablers for autocad, on purpose, but I still see some AEC things loaded on startup, and we are using a very blank, clean dwt. Do you have any verticals installed, Steve? Also, are you loading any third party menus and tools? Your times are indeed fast. BTW, my 2018 time of 17 seconds is about 5 more than it used to take 2015 to start. A real upgrade.
This is pure plain AutoCAD, no verticals, enablers or add-ons. Best case scenario. I would expect the differences shown here to be significantly more obvious in 95%+ of real-world cases, i.e. I’m making AutoCAD look unrealistically not-so-bad.
Civil 3D start times are something else again. I’ve seen Civil 3D start times measured in minutes (2 was good, 5 was bad) on middle-aged PCs. This was not helped, I strongly suspect, by Autodesk’s blocked attempts to sneak past the corporate firewall.
Even in the dark ages of multiple minute start times, /nologo made little or no difference.
I’ve authored little lisp files that start the insert command in specific directories for needle bearings, or helical gearsets, or left-handed ringworm fasteners – all tucked neatly into their own pull down menu hierarchy. The time saved not searching through parts directories hugely outpaces /nologo type changes, but I /nologo ’cause those few seconds of logo offend my simple mind.
Autodesk’s 3D software such as Maya and Max are also plagued by very long startup times (around 25 seconds for a fresh install), while open source Blender 3D (which has the same capabilities) starts in 2-3 secs. Also, installing Blender is just a matter of unzipping a 200 Mb pack wherever you want, even a removable device. User-friendlyness at its best.
Yes, Autodesk has a near-terminal problem with bloat, and doesn’t seem to care about it.
hmm, we jumped from 2015 to 2018, now going to 2019 because of bugs in Civil3D batch converter. Can you believe the most important part of civil3d for us is the tool that explodes and cleans out civil3d objects from drawings!
I think now my conclusions on the /nologo are not valid anymore. Each person should do a quick test to see how they are affected, on a blank session, not opening a real drawing.